It’s clear people want to make their food look better not just for guests, parties and gatherings but in general making your food look pretty is a pretty popular subject. Just check out Pinterest. I thought it would be a fun idea to include more food styling tips this week for you.

I will be offering stylist solutions to plating and presenting food as well as what I think about when styling food for my guests.

Let’s start with Sunday Supper, shall we?

1. Before :: Roast Chicken and Vegetables

After:: Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

Check out the composition on the after plate, the easiest way to compose your plates is to separate the vegetables and lay the chicken in a concise pattern, you can never go wrong with a white plate. I always like to say think like a 5 year old and separate your food, like a 5 year old would say… “no food touching.”

2. Before :: Dip

After :: Dip

No comparison here. Dips are tricky because they are innately not pretty. A good solution to presentation is what you place a dip in. Make sure to use a simple and low profile bowl and surround the dip with artistically placed crackers, breads or veggies in a random composition. The surrounding composition becomes important because it takes the eye all over the plate and makes the focus the entire presentation and not just the dip. Garnish (like the dill randomly placed here) is a nice touch. Using herbs in general as garnish is a great idea.

3. Before :: Salad Nicoise

After :: Salad Nicoise

The before surely tasted delicious but it could not be more unappetizing, it’s a hot mess. The after is separated which is always a great styling solution. It’s not only visually pleasing but gives guests a chance to pick what they like. A big styling tip is to separate things in a plate creating a pleasing composition, it’s a styling basic.

If you’re interested in learning more about food styling check out my workshop June 7th. Hope to see you there, it’s always a super fun day of learning, sharing and creating and of course eating.

Annette Joseph, a food stylist and interior design prop stylist for numerous interior design magazines, can sum up her passion very simply: "I love to shop! I am a collector of beautiful decorative objects and I love sourcing unique finds at flea markets and 'secret' warehouses, editing items in the cabinets and closets, and arranging a home to look beautiful and inviting."

Being a gifted stylist and effortless-yet-elegant entertainer certainly runs through her veins. Annette parents hailed from Hungary, and like many immigrant kids, Annette hid her bag lunch everyday so not to be teased about the strange authentic lunches she ate. But being the child of immigrants gave Annette great insight into the European way of living, from eating to decorating. Her father was a master trained oil painter and gourmand cook who reveled in hosting home parties. With this, Annette learned to appreciate the beauty behind friend and family gatherings at an early age. "I grew up surrounded by the arts," she remembers. "My family loved entertaining and had such zeal for life. My father, who had elegant taste and was a larger-than-life character, taught me how to use my 'eye' when it came to things like lighting and composition. My dad taught me how to cook and where to shop to find wonderful objects, and we shopped almost every weekend together--it was our special bond and became our shared passion." It is a passion Annette carries with her until this day.

And then there was her maternal grandmother, who regularly hosted elaborate dinner parties for 20-40 friends at a time at her small European cottage. "My grandmother was a lover of life who was known for her meals and entertaining in her 5-by-5 kitchen," she says. "Through the years, these experiences shaped my interests more and more. I think I strive to recreate these good times, these simple times, these fun times from my childhood memories every time I put on an event."

Following her passion, Annette majored in Fine Arts during college (while her father told her, "Please don't--you won't make any money!") and worked at The Limited in Milwaukee as a window dresser while attending classes. Annette was so successful that she became the Regional Manager of Visual Merchandising for The Limited covering five states while still in her early 20's. A few years later, Annette got married and moved with her husband to New York City to work as a window dresser for Gimbles.

Annette then moved to Atlanta with her husband and opened a store planning and visual merchandising firm that helped design and merchandise specialty stores. That's when she eventually met a photographer who hired her through her consulting firm to be a photo stylist for his professional shoots. "We worked with so many clients: fashion, food, furniture, interiors and even portraits. I had to learn with a completely different 'eye' from the one visual merchandising and window dressing taught me. Setting up a display for camera is completely different than the displays I set up in my old work." And since Annette has always enjoyed being in the kitchen, she'd happily make lunch for the crew each day. "I'd prep lunch late at night, and then haul it to the studio the next day. I've even been known to crawl into the back of a moving truck filled with props just to grab a bottle of wine to complete our meal! It was an insane experience, but I loved it!" she laughs.

Three years later, Annette took professional food courses at the Culinary Institute of America in upstate New York and in the Napa Valley to further her education. She also took formal courses in Italy to sharpen her aesthetics of food styling. Now with a solid background in everything from DIY projects to cooking, Annette's talents led her to countless freelance projects with cookbook authors, top-notch magazines, such as Better Homes & Gardens, Country Homes, Redbook and People, as well as working as a regular lifestyle contributor and entertaining expert on top TV morning shows such as, The Today Show and Better Mornings and being a regular speaker for Macy's. "One day I'll demonstrate how to make a bed, another how to cook and arrange an elegant meal in simple steps!"

Recently completing the final touches on her first entertaining cookbook, "Picture Perfect Parties" (Rizzoli, October 2013), Annette shows readers how to ingeniously transform the ordinary into the extraordinary without spending a lot of money, and without sacrificing style. She shares her unique, calm and practical approach to being a hostess by combining down-to-earth gusto with do-it-yourself brilliance for people who want to entertain more and with panache.

"I want people to feel that they have command over entertaining," she says. "I can show them how simple it is to not to just throw a dinner party, but to sit down with their guests and enjoy the moment. It's about being creative with what you have and having a passion for beauty. I'm lucky to have fallen into the world of prop styling where the obsession can--and has--paid off. And I can honestly say that everything in my life has led me right to this point."

Annette resides in Atlanta and enjoys her life with her husband, Frank and their two children, Alex and Levi. She and her husband own a home by the sea in Italy where they spend their summers.